So…I was planning on writing about gear – what I’ve upgraded, what’s still going strong, etc.

I don’t want to! I don’t have the time and I don’t think it’s that big a deal. The push to 80 is happening (and for many people, has happened) sa fast that I’m not sure much of the upgrades matter a whole lot until the ones you start getting at 80.

My rule as of now is: I take upgrades that raise anything while lowering nothing. If my old shoes have 30 Stam/Int/Spirit and my new shoes have 30 Stam and Int and 31 Spirit, done! If the new ones have 29 Int, they get sharded. I’m too short on Enchanting mats to not DE everything I possibly can, and I don’t feel like worrying about upgrades when, chances are, it’s gonna be replaced again in a few levels (or at 80, for sure.)

Still holding out with my mace from nerfed Hyjal…my prized possession. I have a feeling it’s gonna go soon, though.

I’m thankful for WotLK, and for a bit of vacation time to play around a bit more with it. Oh yeah…ding!

Level 74, and a decent way in already thanks to some wonderful quest chains and the fact that there seems to be a flightpath every 10-20 yards in Dragonblight. Got to see Ysera last night. I tried to strike a up a conversation, but I guess she was tired. Oh well, onto part two!

The Lich

Moving from TBC into WotLK is stepping from a game I tolerate into a game I love. Unfortunately, the most fun I had pre-WotLK was when the introduced Achievements and everyone wanted to do Ony runs and revisit places like Mara and MC. To this day, I will drop everything for a Strat run. There is nothing better, IMHO.

Still…moving back to the actual topic…from the second that sleek, sexy zeppelin landed (stopped? they don’t actually land I suppose) in Northrend and I jumped off, I was enthralled. A war? ok. Burn dead bodies? I’m with you. Drop vials of plage onto ships? *giggle* Talk shit to a large, scary man before you kill him? Yeah, you’ve won me over.

I have to agree with Shatter on this (see Egotistical Priest this week) – It’s an RP’ers dream come true. I’m not just another peon killing 10 boars or muredering some guy that will respawn in 30 seconds.

I’m saving villages. I’m capturing the souls of Arthas’ deathknights in gems. I’ve heard I do something involving a wall of some kind in the near future. I’ve saved mammoths from poachers, cut off the ears of said poachers, and then been killed by those D.H.E.T.A. psychos when I returned within 3 minutes of killing a mammoth. Hey, it attacked me! Not my fault.

I’ve rescued Kodos. I’ve taken out a tree monster with a cannon from the deck of a ghost ship. I’ve pissed of Malygos while starting an epic dragon battle high above the Nexus. (Best. Flight. EVER.)

I was worried about the transition from, “I’d rather mount and fly those 15 feet than walk them,” to, “My Wind Rider seems to be broken,” but it’s no big deal. The environments are beautiful, and I’m glad Blizzard didn’t give me the opportunity to miss them.

Nothing is hard! I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that yet. On the one hand, I like feeling powerful. That’s right, Northrend, Misamane is here to vanquish you. Bow before my Smites and mah magic wand.

Heroic Naxx is old news. I’ve never even seen regular Naxx. I didn’t even see old Naxx. It feels like a rush-to-80-then-enjoy-it deal. Having only spent about 6 weeks at 70, I can appreciate that sentiment. Leveling is just a precursor to endgame, and I think that’s more evident than ever in WotLK. Account-bound superequips will be sent to my 24 lock asap, making him just this side of godlike on his push to 80. The only problem I can see is that I’ll have to get through BC content to get there. Let’s make a deal, Blizz. I’ll give you 100 Heroic tokens if you let me skip 58-68. How about it?

Anyway, thus ends my rant on the xpac. Looking back, it’s a bit incoherent at points, but you can’t deny the entertainment value.

Part three may be detained, seeing as the Misa is hitting Disneyland this weekend. But, if that’s the case…we’ll pretend it never happened and start over on Monday 🙂

Not that I think anyone read my first post, but it seems like a good greeting that’s pretty friendly in general.

I decided that this week I’ll do three posts, in order, about my spec (the hybrid), my time in the xpac so far (the lich), and my view on the upgrades contained therein (yep, the wardrobe.)

The Hybrid

Right now I’m specced for leveling. I’m sitting on 34/27/3 at level 73 and loving every minute of it. The 3 Shadow points of course go into Spirit Tap, and btw ty Blizz for giving us Imp. Spirit Tap. It’s nice to have when I’m Shadow, and it saves me 2 points when I’m not. Good call.

My Holy points are focused around getting both Spiritual Guidance and Surge of Light. That 25% of my Spirit translating to spellpower gives me a nice little confidence boost. Fortunately, with the general mood being that Int is replacing Spirit on my most-wanted list, I’m not that worried about losing that 25% when I hit 80 and respec to mostly Disc. Surge of Light is great because no one ever turns down free, insta-cast Smites. Even with mana regeneration not being a problem, free damage makes things go faster. It’s also a great way to top myself off without having to charge a heal.But most of the time I’ll PoM/Renew and use the free Smite.

It doesn’t hurt that to get to those talents I have to go through Divine Fury and Searing Light. Half a second less to cast a spell that does 10% more damage = happy Misa. I was actually debating Desperate Prayer for now…if someone has it, let me know how it is. My next respec I might take it just to check it out. I skipped Spirit of Redemption because 99.8% of the time I’m soloing. I only hit the instances to complete the quests contained therein.

And so we come to my favorite topic here today…Discipline! I opted for the two points in Imp. Fort because Martyrdom sucks (IMHO) and I don’t need the threat reduction from Silent Resolve since I’m always alone. 80% of my normal threat still beats the 0% from the party members I don’t have.

Besides, if I run an instance, I just bring a DK. I don’t have to worry about out-threating the tank when the DK has twice his threat anyway. “I has Death Grip I is ur tank.” Yes, yes. *nods and stops healing the DK*

Imp PW:Shield is a given, 15% less damage from the large things trying to kill me. Of course, nobody goes Disc and doesn’t take Meditation. Inner Focus is another nice little free spell every 3 minutes…which goes by quite fast if you don’t pay attention to it.

I actually got Imp. Mana Burn so I’d have a reason to add the spell to my rotation. I feel like I’ve been stuck in a rotation rut and wanted to introduce a new spell and see how hard it would be to actively use it in my rotation. It’s hard. Sometimes I find myself ignoring it completely for hours at a time. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, since the spell itself does nothing to up my DPS output (in fact, it probably subtracts from it) but I’m partially encouraged by the fact that I’ve actually started using a much different healing rotation than I did as holy. Throwing PoM’s and Renews up and shielding when Weakend Soul is down keeps tanks alive through most instance encounters, with the occasional Greater Heal thrown in for good measure. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Penance, and I look forward to 80 when I get to play with it myself.

Where was I? Ah yes, Divine Spirit. Buffs, buffs and more buffs, that’s what I say. I took Imp. DS too, once again because I solo and I like spellpower. I’ve been losing it left and right as I move into WotLK gear, and I want some back! Mental Strength is another must. 15% more Int is appealing as we move into the Int-over-Spirit days of WoW. Enlightenment…10% stat boost and 5% haste is much better than taking Focused Power and…what would you even take? Absolution I guess, or something I’ve already decided not to take.

Ah, the 30-point talents. I took Power Infusion, as usual. I’m not sure if I’ll even touch the rest of this tier. Focused Will doesn’t appeal to me at all. If I’m alone in a position where I need added healing, I’m probably somewhere I shouldn’t be. I’ll probably funnel those other 4 points into Mental Agility. After that I plan on throwing two points into Aspiration, and then when I hit 80 I’ll respec anyways, so all of this will mean nothing.

I’ve had a few priests in my guild ask about my spec, and finally convinced one to try it out. He’d been leveling Shadow and telling me how much better it was, and after a few days of arguing he agreed to try my spec out. The next day, I get a tell.